An Analysis of Women’s Language and Social Ideologies: A Case Study of An Animated Movie Zootopia
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Published:
Dec 26, 2019
Keywords:
critical discourse analysis, women’s language features, sexist language, social meanings, social contexts
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Abstract
Gender differences result in women and men using different linguistic features and functions in communication; therefore, understanding these differences could lead to successful communication (Coates, 2004). This study aimed to identify women’s language features and functions used in the animated movie Zootopia. The study adopted critical discourse analysis to examine the dialogue spoken by female characters in the movie collected from the screenplay, and to interpret the meanings of specific social situations. In addition, the movie was watched to support the screenplay for data collection. After the data were gathered, they were categorised into groups of linguistic features and qualitatively analysed based on Tannen’s Genderlect Theory (Tannen, 1990), Coates’s concepts regarding conversational practices (Coates, 2004), and Mills’ research on sexist language (Mills, 2008). The findings show that women in the film use a cooperative style and the language of rapport in communication to build relationships and establish connections with other people. With regard to the features of women’s language, eight linguistic features were found in the study: fillers/hedges, minimal responses, questions, tag questions, politeness, directives, compliments, and swearing. This present study highlights that women use particular language features and styles in communication and that social ideologies are embedded in their language. These findings may increase the understanding of current trends in language use and raise awareness regarding the prevailing attitudes and values in society.
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Čeněk, J. (2013). Gender stereotypes in organizations. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 1, 30-37.
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Dewi, N. P. E. M. S., Resen, I. W. & Winaya, I. M. (2017). The features of men’s and women’s language in The Movie Camp Rock 2: Final Jam. Journal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud, 20(1), 310-317. Retrieved from https://simdos.unud.ac.id/uploads/ file_penelitian_1_dir/4817cbc4daa32d71abf467e9b0ca0ec8.pdf
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Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and gender. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eisenchlas, S. A. (2013). Gender roles and expectations: Any changes online? Sage Open, 3(4), 1-11. doi:10.1177/2158244013506446
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Fi’aunillah, T. K. (2015). Sexist language in “The Lord of The Rings” film trilogy. Language Horizon, 3(1), 143-149.
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Goodwin, M. H. (2006). Participation, affect, and trajectory in family directive/response sequences. Text & Talk, 26(4-5), 513-541.
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Ivy, D. K., & Backlund, P. (2008). GenderSpeak: Personal effectiveness in gender communication (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.
Jørgensen, M. & Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: Sage Publication.
Juwita, T. P., Sunggingwati, D., & Valiantien, N. M. (2018). The differences between men and women’s language in The Devil Wears Prada movie. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Budaya, 2(1), 43-52. Retrieved from https://e-journals.unmul.ac.id/index.php/JBSSB/article/view/870
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Lei, X. (2006). Sexism in language. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(1), 87-94.
Lomotey, B. A. (2015). On sexism in language and language change–the case of Peninsular Spanish. Linguistik online, 70(1), 167-183. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.13092/ lo.70.1748
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Mohindra, V., & Azhar, S. (2012). Gender communication: A comparative analysis of communicational approaches of men and women at workplaces. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (JHSS), 2(1), 18-27.
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Oktapiani, T., Natsir, M., & Setyowati, R. (2017). Women’s language features found in female character’s utterances in The Devil Wears Prada movie. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Budaya, 1(3), 207-220. Retrieved from https://e-journals.unmul.ac.id/index.php/JBSSB/article/view/672
O’Keeffe, B. (2014). Fight back: Addressing everyday sexism in Australian schools. Retrieved from https://fhsfemco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FHS_FIGHTBACK_ v0615-2.pdf
Pan, Q. (2011). On the features of female language in English. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(8), 1015-1018.
Pichler, P. (2016). Language, Gender, and Identity. In N. Bonvillain (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 191-205). New York: Routledge.
Prentice, D. A., & Carranza, E. (2002). What women and men should be, shouldn't be, are allowed to be, and don't have to be: The contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26(4), 269-281.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735.
Safitri, A. W. (2017). Women’s language in Tangled movie: A sociolinguistic study. Sastra Inggris-Quill, 6(1), 1-14. Retrieved from https://journal.student.uny.ac.id/ojs/index.php/ quill/article/view/6362
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Schnurr, S., & Zayts, O. (2017). Language and culture at work. New York: Routledge.
Shazu, R. I. (2014). Relationship between gender and language. Journal of Education and Practice, 5(14), 93-100.
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Subon, F. (2013). Gender differences in the use of linguistic forms in the speech of men and women in the Malaysian context. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 13(3), 67-79.
Sunderland, J. (2006). Language and gender: An advanced resource book. Oxon: Routledge.
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Van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 352-371). Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.). The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 466-485). Massachusetts: Wiley Blackwell.
Van Han, N. (2014). The relationship between language and gender: A case study in Vietnamese. Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Science, 3(3), 96-99.
Wardhaugh, R., & Fuller, J. M. (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics (7th ed.). West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.
Wharton, A. S. (2005). The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
Widayanti, N. K. A. (2014). The analysis of sexist language in movie’s script “The Vow” by Michael Sucsy. HUMANIS, 8(2). Retrieved from https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/sastra/ article/view/8829
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M (Eds.). (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage Publications.
Zimmerman, D. C. & West, C. (1975). Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (Eds.), Language and sex: Difference and dominance (pp. 105-129). Massachusetts: Newbury House.
Cameron, D. (1992). Feminism and linguistic theory (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Čeněk, J. (2013). Gender stereotypes in organizations. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 1, 30-37.
Chambers, J. K. (2009). Sociolinguistic theory: Linguistic variation and its social significance (Rev. ed.). West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
Coates, J. (2004). Women, men and language: A sociolinguistic account of gender differences in language (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge.
Coates, J. (2012). Gender and discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee, & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 90-103). New York: Routledge.
De Saussure, F. (1959). Course in general linguistics (W. Baskin, trans.). New York: The Philosophical Library (Original work published 1916).
Dewi, N. P. E. M. S., Resen, I. W. & Winaya, I. M. (2017). The features of men’s and women’s language in The Movie Camp Rock 2: Final Jam. Journal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud, 20(1), 310-317. Retrieved from https://simdos.unud.ac.id/uploads/ file_penelitian_1_dir/4817cbc4daa32d71abf467e9b0ca0ec8.pdf
Donnelly, J. (2017). Zootopia is the 2017 Oscar winner for animated feature film. Retrieved from https://oscar.go.com/news/winners/zootopia-is-the-2017-oscar-winner-for-animated-feature-film
Eagly, A. H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social roles. American Psychologist, 54(6), 408-423.
Eckert, P., & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2003). Language and gender. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Eisenchlas, S. A. (2013). Gender roles and expectations: Any changes online? Sage Open, 3(4), 1-11. doi:10.1177/2158244013506446
Fairclough, N. (2010). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Fairclough, N. (2012). Critical discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee, & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 9-20). New York: Routledge.
Fi’aunillah, T. K. (2015). Sexist language in “The Lord of The Rings” film trilogy. Language Horizon, 3(1), 143-149.
Fishman, P. M. (1978). Interaction: The work women do. Social Problems, 25(4), 397-406.
Goddard, A., & Patterson, L. M. (2000). Language and Gender. New York: Routledge.
Goodwin, M. H. (2006). Participation, affect, and trajectory in family directive/response sequences. Text & Talk, 26(4-5), 513-541.
Gu, L. (2013). Language and Gender: Differences and Similarities. In Y. Kim (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Social Science, Humanities, and Management (pp. 248-251). Paris: Atlantis Press.
Hall, S. (1980). Encoding/decoding. In S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, & P. Willis (Eds.), Culture, Media, Language (pp. 117-127). London: Routledge.
Hardini, T. I., Darmawangsa, D., & Nada, A. G. (2017). A study of women’s language varieties in French movie. FRANCISOLA, 2(2), 134-143.
Holmes, J. (2013). An introduction to sociolinguistics (4th ed.). New York: Routledge.
Holmes, M. (2007). What is gender? Sociological approaches. London: Sage Publications.
Howard, B. (Director) & Moore, R. (Director). (2016). Zootopia [Motion Picture]. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment.
Ivy, D. K., & Backlund, P. (2008). GenderSpeak: Personal effectiveness in gender communication (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.
Jørgensen, M. & Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: Sage Publication.
Juwita, T. P., Sunggingwati, D., & Valiantien, N. M. (2018). The differences between men and women’s language in The Devil Wears Prada movie. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Budaya, 2(1), 43-52. Retrieved from https://e-journals.unmul.ac.id/index.php/JBSSB/article/view/870
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and woman’s place. New York: Harper & Row.
Lei, X. (2006). Sexism in language. Journal of Language and Linguistics, 5(1), 87-94.
Lomotey, B. A. (2015). On sexism in language and language change–the case of Peninsular Spanish. Linguistik online, 70(1), 167-183. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.13092/ lo.70.1748
Mills, S. (2008). Language and sexism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mohindra, V., & Azhar, S. (2012). Gender communication: A comparative analysis of communicational approaches of men and women at workplaces. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (JHSS), 2(1), 18-27.
Oakley, A. (1972). Sex, Gender, and Society. New York: Harper and Row.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). (2014). Gender stereotypes and stereotyping and women’s rights. Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/OnePagers/Gender_stereotyping.pdf
Oktapiani, T., Natsir, M., & Setyowati, R. (2017). Women’s language features found in female character’s utterances in The Devil Wears Prada movie. Ilmu Budaya: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni dan Budaya, 1(3), 207-220. Retrieved from https://e-journals.unmul.ac.id/index.php/JBSSB/article/view/672
O’Keeffe, B. (2014). Fight back: Addressing everyday sexism in Australian schools. Retrieved from https://fhsfemco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FHS_FIGHTBACK_ v0615-2.pdf
Pan, Q. (2011). On the features of female language in English. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 1(8), 1015-1018.
Pichler, P. (2016). Language, Gender, and Identity. In N. Bonvillain (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 191-205). New York: Routledge.
Prentice, D. A., & Carranza, E. (2002). What women and men should be, shouldn't be, are allowed to be, and don't have to be: The contents of prescriptive gender stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26(4), 269-281.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735.
Safitri, A. W. (2017). Women’s language in Tangled movie: A sociolinguistic study. Sastra Inggris-Quill, 6(1), 1-14. Retrieved from https://journal.student.uny.ac.id/ojs/index.php/ quill/article/view/6362
Sandra, N. (2013). The sexist language used by the characters in The Duchess movie. Language Horizon, 1(3), 1-8. Retrieved from https://jurnalmahasiswa.unesa.ac.id/ index.php/language-horizon/article/viewFile/4270/6714
Santi, N. W. A. (2013). Comparison of sexist language used in The Twilight Saga Eclipse movie. HUMANIS, 12(1), 1-7. Retrieved from https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/sastra/ article/view/6929
Schnurr, S., & Zayts, O. (2017). Language and culture at work. New York: Routledge.
Shazu, R. I. (2014). Relationship between gender and language. Journal of Education and Practice, 5(14), 93-100.
Springfield! Springfield! (n.d.). Zootopia (2016) movie script. Retrieved from https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=Zootopia
Subon, F. (2013). Gender differences in the use of linguistic forms in the speech of men and women in the Malaysian context. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 13(3), 67-79.
Sunderland, J. (2006). Language and gender: An advanced resource book. Oxon: Routledge.
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). (2015). Gender analysis – Principles & Elements. Retrieved from https://www.sida.se/contentassets/ a3f08692e731475db106fdf84f2fb9bd/gender-tool-analysis.pdf
Tannen, D. (1990). You just don’t understand. New York: Ballantine.
Umera-Okeke, N. (2012). Linguistic sexism: An overview of the English language in everyday discourse. AFRREV LALIGENS: An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies, 1(1), 1-17. Retrieved from https://www.ajol.info/ index.php/laligens/article/view/107910
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (2003). UNESCO’s gender mainstreaming implementation framework. Retrieved from https://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/BSP/GENDER/PDF/1.%20Baseline%20Definitions%20of%20key%20gender-related%20concepts.pdf
Van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, & H. E. Hamilton (Eds), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 352-371). Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.). The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 466-485). Massachusetts: Wiley Blackwell.
Van Han, N. (2014). The relationship between language and gender: A case study in Vietnamese. Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Science, 3(3), 96-99.
Wardhaugh, R., & Fuller, J. M. (2015). An introduction to sociolinguistics (7th ed.). West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell.
Wharton, A. S. (2005). The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
Widayanti, N. K. A. (2014). The analysis of sexist language in movie’s script “The Vow” by Michael Sucsy. HUMANIS, 8(2). Retrieved from https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/sastra/ article/view/8829
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M (Eds.). (2001). Methods of critical discourse analysis. London: Sage Publications.
Zimmerman, D. C. & West, C. (1975). Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (Eds.), Language and sex: Difference and dominance (pp. 105-129). Massachusetts: Newbury House.